The world of decentralized finance has been dominated by a particular kind of voice—often male, often libertarian, often blind to the social implications of the systems they build. What if we imagined DeFi differently? What if bonds weren't just financial instruments, but tools for collective liberation?
Beyond Speculation: Bonds as Care Infrastructure
Traditional bonds fund governments and corporations. Non-fungible bonds could fund communities. Imagine bonds that finance mutual aid networks, that support reproductive healthcare access, that build affordable housing outside the predatory market. Each bond unique, each bond a commitment to specific, accountable outcomes.
The Fungibility Problem
Fungibility in finance means interchangeability—one dollar is as good as any other. But this ignores the reality that money carries history. A dollar from exploited labor is not the same as a dollar from cooperative work. Non-fungible bonds acknowledge this truth: the source and purpose of capital matters.
Feminist Economics Meets Web3
Feminist economists like Silvia Federici have long argued that capitalism depends on the invisibility of care work—the unpaid labor overwhelmingly performed by women. Non-fungible bonds could make this labor visible, valuable, and compensated. A bond that matures when a child reaches adulthood, funded by those who benefit from the next generation's existence.
Reparative Finance
What if bonds could be instruments of repair? Non-fungible bonds tied to specific historical injustices, with yields that flow to affected communities. Not charity, but accountability encoded in code. The blockchain's immutability becomes a feature, not a bug: these obligations cannot be quietly forgotten.
Building Different Futures
The crypto space often reproduces the worst of traditional finance: speculation, extraction, winner-take-all dynamics. But the technology itself is neutral. We can build protocols that embed solidarity, that redistribute rather than concentrate, that value care as much as capital.
Non-fungible bonds are a thought experiment, but thought experiments become blueprints. The question isn't whether these systems are possible—the technology exists. The question is whether we have the collective imagination to build finance that serves liberation.
Every financial instrument is a social contract. Let's write contracts that center care, accountability, and repair.